Sunday, January 11, 2009

No Late Fees?

It's embarrassing how few movies I have watched at home during the latter part of 2008. A few weeks ago it occurred to me that the three movies that had arrived from Netflix in back in May were still floating around the house.

Lars and the Real Girl was unwatched. I did manage to view the first half hour or so of Felini's 8 1/2, but the wife would have nothing to do with it so I turned it off. The same went for Truffaut's Day for Night -- I caught but the first part of the movie and that was it.

All three movies arrived about the time the Seattle Film Festival was starting, and I had shelved them for viewing later on. During the festival I would see two, three or four movies a day, and the last thing I wanted to do when I got home is watch a movie on DVD.

So right before New Year's, some seven months after they had arrived, I collected my rented DVDs and dropped them in the mail. Three DVD's, seven months late, and no late fees.

While I am on the subject of late fees, I know someone who has three items checked out of the Lexington County Public Library which are stamped due (yes, stamped) November 16, 1978.

Can anyone venture an estimate on what my, er, my friend's late fees would be were he to return the books on February 1 of this year?

4 comments:

George said...

You, I mean your "friend", should probably rip all the ID numbers off the books before returning them. Let's make a game out of guessing which 3 books they are. I guess:

1 - "The Professor and the Bimbo: Behind the scenes stories from the set of Gilligan's Island"
2 - "Blubber"
3 - "Conan the Swordsman" (atcually published in 1978)

Have your friend give me a call on Feb 1st and I'll help him return them.

Chuck said...

Jim:

You are the kind of guy that Netflix loves. Don't think about late fees, but, do the math: how much did it cost you in dues to keep those three films that long? Don't care to think about it? Go to http://feedflix.com/ and put in your RSS feeds. Yikes.

I just realized that I have had "Be Kind, Rewind", "The Bucket List" and "Some Other Film" since the end of October.

I made it my mission to watch these movies this weekend. I watched BKR. Not a bad film, but I feel asleep in it. Mos Def has one of the most soothing voices that even overpowered Jack Black. I caught the end of it, and figure that it is a jab against movies, the home video industry, etc. But, was perhaps a bit to art filmy for my taste on a Saturday night.

Maybe I should have watched Hellboy.

Steve said...

I'm going to guess:

1. "Woody Allen: From 'Bananas' to The White House and Why He'll Rule America"
2. "The Danger of Home Movies--Places NOT to Film"
3. "Cigars and Coffee, A Brief History of The Kettle Restaurant Chain"

Ten cents per day, 365 days per year, thirty years...yikes!

Auntie Joyce said...

Ok 365 days times 30 years = 1095 days times .10 a day = $1095.00 times 3 books = $3285.00
Oh my you could have bought a whole used book store for that amount. Think of all the children you deprived of getting to read those three books. Shame shame on you.